1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wiping apparatus for wiping a nozzle surface of a function (or functional) liquid droplet ejection (or discharge) head which ejects function liquid droplets, the wiping being performed by a wiping sheet which has been spread or coated with a cleaning liquid; an imaging apparatus which is provided with the wiping apparatus; a method of manufacturing an electro-optical device; an electro-optical device; and an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
The wiping apparatus is made up of: a feeding reel for feeding a wiping sheet; a take-up reel for taking up the fed reel; a wiping roller around which is wound the fed-out wiping sheet; and a take-up motor for driving the take-up roller. While the take-up motor is driven and the wiping sheet is fed, the wiping sheet is urged or pushed by the wiping roller against the nozzle surface of the function liquid droplet ejection head. The wiping sheet is thus brought into sliding contact with the nozzle surface, whereby the wiping operation is performed.
In the sheet feeding passage (or sheet feeding path) of the wiping sheet, there is disposed a cleaning liquid supply head in close proximity to the wiping roller. The wiping sheet is sprayed with a cleaning liquid right before wiping the nozzle surface. The wiping of the nozzle surface of the function liquid droplet ejection head is performed with a wiping sheet which is impregnated with the cleaning liquid.
While the cleaning liquid improves the efficiency of wiping of the nozzle surface, there is the following problem. Namely, if the wiping sheet is sprayed with an excessive amount of cleaning liquid, the cleaning liquid will find its way into the ejection nozzles which are open in the nozzle surface. As a result, the function liquid droplet ejection head cannot be maintained in an appropriate state any longer. As a solution, there is considered the following. Namely, the cleaning liquid supply head is constituted by a spray nozzle which is capable of spraying minute cleaning liquid particles, and the wiping sheet is supplied with a uniform and adequate amount of cleaning liquid. However, if the cleaning liquid is supplied to the wiping sheet with the spray nozzle, the cleaning liquid becomes partly atomized. As a consequence, the atomized particles are away from the wiping sheet and are kept in suspension or scattered. Depending on the cleaning liquids, they get adhered to the peripheral parts of the apparatus, or the like, to thereby cause corrosion thereof.